23:53 - Sunny PagliaccioNote to self: Do NOT open links on max volume in the middle of a quiet night. Otherwise, not bad. :D

23:52 - ApothecaryFast food workers planning a strike in support of $15/hour wages next month. I'm a tutor in a reading lab at a college and I don't even make that much, a bit of an overestimation of one's importance, don'tcha think?

Dance Of Death. What a bad title. What a bad cover. What strange titles. Push play: what a banal opening! The single Wildest Dreams is one of the worst songs of this album. Why such a bad choice? Skip track and listen to the others. This album is great. I loved Brave New World but this one seems to be innovative and even better than his predecessor.

Iron Maiden's 2003 release was something that by the first listen didn't convince me much. I even went this far thinking to myself Bruce Dickinson should have rather continued with his solo career, but luckily I've waited long enough to change my mind.

Concluding there must be something entirely different to previous releases (which was also true for the Brave New World album) to make a die hard Iron Maiden (incl. Bruce Dickinson) fan shake his had (and I don't mean bang of course). The first thing that disturbed me was the first single ... It sounded rather poor and still does in comparison to the rest of the album. I mean it evokes the right feeling, continuing on paths of Brave New World, but on a much lower level and yes it took me some time to get into B. N. W., too... Anyway the second song' Rainmaker', that is still my favourite on the album, takes the opposite direction, entirely satisfying from the start, somehow something that I expected to be and it came out just right (thinking of nothing in particular though) the result is Rainmaker, an awesome song. Then at first I found other tracks to be rather lame and unsatisfying (for sure, I wouldn't have to state that I changed my mind, would I?). This category was filled by 'Dance Of Death' and the tracks from 'Paschendale' to the last song 'Journeyman'. I simply couldn't find the relation to older what I've heard before, indeed I rather thought, this is not really Maiden, this is some band of old dudes that will retire in the very near future.

Singer Bruce Dickinson's return to Iron Maiden in 1999 was unsurprisingly met with a great deal of anticipation. Could his return bring the Irons out of the arguable rut into which they had fallen during the Blaze Bailey years? The energy and conviction of 2000's 'Brave New World' suggested that Iron Maiden were very much headed for the top once again. Unfortunately, this momentum was not to be sustained by the 2003 follow-up 'Dance Of Death'.

My all-time favorite album. And my first metal exposure. I listened to Dance of Death when i was 13, while all my friends were appreciating Indian romantic titles. When i checked this track, I felt like I was dancing in hell. From that day on, I've almost sunk deep into metal....
wooooo...

Throughout this album, some riffs sound the same, it's like they plagiarized themselves over and over... And the same happens in the next album, A Matter Of Life And Death. I didn't listen to Final Frontier yet, but I think it probably sounds the same. I didn't even bother to listen to it...

Definitely their second weakest 2000s album and the weakest artwork in their entire career (CGI for the lose lol ). However, it's still very solid, with awesome songs like the title track, "Paschendale", "Journeyman", "Gates of Tomorrow", and "Montsegur" heard throughout. It may not be one of Maiden's strongest releases, but when compared to some of the other albums that came out in 2003 (*cough *cough St. Anger *cough *cough), it still stands on it's own as a very good album.

EDIT: "Journeyman" and the title track are two of my all-time fave Iron Maiden songs (with the title track at #1)

when people get old they becaim, but still for age 40 and such time and glory pass buy they still are orginal. Good album, and seems band find a way put best 2 songs in 1 and 2 at album ... well those are strongest there
I like thius better than Brave New World actualy

This is my favorite XXI century's Maiden album. More epic than ever and every song is majestic and magical. No More Lies, DANCE OF DEATH, Montségur, Paschendale, Face in the Sand and The Journeyman are EXCELLENT!!!